Life
Why are roast potatoes so hard to get right?
Roast potatoes shouldn’t be complicated. We’re talking two ingredients, plus some salt and maybe herbs if you’re feeling fancy. It’s…
Aussie life
Less than two months after its imposition, the world’s first children’s social media ban is already exceeding targets, with a…
Language
Let’s begin the year by summarising the ‘Words of the Year’ chosen by the world’s great dictionaries to represent last…
Spectator Competition: Forward thinking
For Competition 3430 you were invited to write a rhyming prophecy for 2026. Joe Houlihan’s closing couplet encapsulates the tenor…
I’ve been duped by the Toby hoaxers
Going to see QPR on Boxing Day has become a tradition in the Young household – and not because we…
Where are you on the tightwad scale?
I once stood in a queue behind a Scotsman checking out of a hotel in Germany. After he had finished…
Dear Mary: How do we stop our generous host putting us in the worst room?
Q. Around this time of year a successful friend likes to rent an expensive ski chalet with cook and fill…
There’s nothing to fear from Madeira
Perhaps because of the Flanders and Swann song in which a louche older gentleman tries to lure a younger lady…
The ‘lovely boy’ who’s ruining our lives
We spent an hour in the Garda station trying to explain ourselves to a flame-haired police lady. She sat with…
Could our chicken-killing dog sniff out a fortune?
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna Maria, the boisterous new vizsla who gives the old one, Rocco, such a hard time, was in…
Aussie life
Driving up Noosa North Shore a few weeks ago we joined three other vehicles bogged in the soft sand. All…
Language
I heard ‘begging the question’ being misused (again!) on talkback radio. But let’s not blame the poor old broadcasters –…
I spend more on wine than I do on my mortgage
The first time I got drunk was at a wedding. I was 12 or thereabouts and sick in the taxi…
AI has helped make ‘parasocial’ the word of the year
‘After having thrown a sheep six times from the top of a tower,’ reported the Gloucester Journal in 1784, ‘Montgolfier…
Could two great managers bring us two World Cup wins?
Maybe it’s the time of the year, or maybe it’s down to my sad little life, but surely I can’t…
